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This is one of my favourite piece in my collection.
It is a Kettneraspis in defending position that I got from an unexperienced private seller in Paris who sold it me for 1/4 of the price.
Really Nice detail and shapes, unfortunately missing eye and left tip of the spine,could do with some preparation and repairing but I don't have the tools because they are quite expensive...
Apart from that really happy.
Hope you like the post

A Fossil Forum friend sent me a few Georgia rocks to split. They were full of trilobites and bits. I believe these are all Aphelaspis brachyphasis but I understand this site has other species as seen in this information :
Locality 1 is an outcrop in Murray County. The matrix is mudstone and the researchers report “very abundant specimens” of Aphelaspis brachyphasis often as body clusters.
Locality 1, Murray County:
Agnostus inexpectans
Aspidagnostus rugosus
Glyptagnostus reticulatus
Aphelaspis brachyphasis
;
Could any knowledgeable person verify the identities of these trilobites. As I said , it seems like they are all A. brachyphasis but the HUGE size differences to the trilobites leave me wondering whether I am missing something. Thanks.

As I prepare a space in the dining room for a large trilobite display, organized by geologic periods and taxonomic trees, I am also cleaning up the database and trying to pinpoint some IDs with a bit more precision, and would definitely be grateful for assistance.
The first two are pictured in the first image.
On the left is a find from my area with the imported fill, so it could be anything from Bois Blanc, Amherstberg, to Dundee Fms. I am thinking that this is a dalmantid, along the lines of Anchiops due to what appear to be incised axial rings and that wide, flaring upper portion of the pygidium. But I am not 100% sure. If it is A. anchiopsis, it goes in my "to trade" pile as I already have examples of this one.
On the right is a gift from John B. and his trip to Wrens Nest with the challenge to prep it out a bit more. The matrix of this stuff laughed at my air scribe as it whined and whined with very little give. I was vaguely thinking Dalmanites myops. Hopefully there is enough detail to be certain. It lacks the pygidial spike if that is the case. I am having some difficulty locating any of my literature on Wrens Nest bugs at the moment.
The third is another odd find from my import fill area. It has a pygidial border, that puts me in mind of Pseudodechenella, but it does not seem quite right. The axis tapers to a point and sits high up when viewed from the side. Scale of the tiny squares is 5mm x 5mm.

A rangeomorph holdfast trace fossil from the Ediacara formation, Rawnsley quartzite of the Flinders Range, South Australia. This specimen is Medusina mawsoni, so called because it was until recently thought to be a jellyfish, but is now believed to be the attachment point of a fractal rangeomorph as Charniodiscus is the point of anchorage for Charnia sp. This one may have been the holdfast point for some species of Rangea. The diameter of the outer circle is 1.5 cm and the fossil is estimated to be 555 million years old.

Well, i thought I'd show my primitive prepping skills.
This is all rather unnecessary as Tony @ynothas already done this thread here and probably better and the pieces shown were kindly donated to me as well.
So treat this as a repeat of what Tony does better.
Hey ho.
So these are the three pieces that Kind Tony sent me.
1. Notice this Elrathia kingii (1.2 cm long) has a break on the anterior margin (cause of death?) .and an upside down Itagnostus interstrictus (5.5 mm) above it and a piece of another to the right of it.
2. This Elrathia (1.8 cm long) has another ones cephalon stuck to its cephalon and some serious damage on the right side pleura.
3. This one is upside down in the matrix. (2.3 cm long)
All my prepping was done balancing the specimens on my knee and using a jeweller's loupe to see and a board pin to do the actual prepping. Some water and saliva were also involved, but that was all. First I carefully cleaned as much of the matrix off the first two specimens as i could using the pin and then dug around the third piece so I could 'pop' it out of the matrix. Then I dug all around the other two specimens with the pin and popped them out of the matrix. Here is the third one popped out and with a bit of prep already completed. Sorry for the dreadful photo, but wifey and her camera phone weren't about so i started prepping and then took this photo with my computer as i was impatient to continue. When it was first popped only a tiny bit of the glabella was showing clear of matrix.
Here i have popped the Itagnostus before popping the Elrathia.

For a long time I've always wanted to have one of these trilobites, but they are so commonly faked I get anxiety whenever I consider ever purchasing one which has put me off from them for so long. I know there are obvious fakes but some get very close to real and I have a hard time disconcerning, a little restoration isn't so bad to me if its small part and the majority is real. Below I'm going to post a few pictures of some recent ones that leave me scratching my head. God forbid if these end up being fakes even though I definitely suspect restorations for sure, anyone know where to come across a real one?

Last summer my wife's side of the family held a reunion in Buffalo, NY. I had heard of a fossil park in the area and suggested that any family members that would like to go with me to the park on our afternoon with no obligations could join me. Five carloads later, we ended up at Penn Dixie in the misty rain. Our guide, no other than Devonian Digger provided us with an exceptional afternoon of fun. From 5 year olds to 80 year olds, each came home with a bucket of fossils! This is definitely a family experience for anyone in the area. One I recommend highly!!!!!
I must apologize to Devonian Digger. My intent was to post this months and months ago. But our computer crashed and I lost all of the family pictures showing utter joy on their faces. Still have not been able to retrieve them. So you will just have to look at fossils

Hey, does anyone know what this is? I got it in my rock collection from a lady down the street. It was her dads and he had identified it as a trilobite from New York state, but I'm suspicious as to if it is actually a trilobite. I looked it up, but I couldn't find anything. It also doesn't appear to have legs, which I'm pretty sure that trilobites have legs. It looks like an anomalocarid to me. Does anyone know what this is?

Well as of late I don't seem to be prepping many for me, although I have had some stunning fossils pass by my workshop in the last few months
I know these are common as dirt. I found this little gem (dimension 27.17 mm x 17.26 mm) on Monday May 22 at Penn Dixie. So I took time this morning while working on a stunning greenops for someone else to quickly have a go at this little beauty for myself. I will post something on the greenops prep in a bit. It is going to be a nice one. A trilobite does not have to be rare to be beautiful. As far as I can recall the phacops rana ( I know that is not the correct name but it probably was when I found my first one) was the first complete trilobite I ever found, so they will always have a special place for me. The mind gets fuzzy with old age as the senility begins to creep in.
This one was from Penn Dixie and took a whopping 12 minutes to prep. Other than the tip of the cephalon (head) everything was buried. Buried trilos always have the best potential to be pristine. Came out pretty nice for a quickie. Was prepped on a Comco air abrasion unit with no airscribing, using 40 micron dolomite at 25 PSI with a .030 and .015 inch nozzle under a Olympus scope at 10x magnification. No restoration, no gluing, no coatings.

I am finally getting most of my trilobite parts identified but still need some schooling on this pygidium:
It was found in the Platteville/ Ordovician in SW Wisconsin. It is 4cm by 4.5 cm
In addition, these two plates contain what I thought were just pieces of Isotelus, but the more I looked, the more I questioned my thoughts. Agree or change the ID? These plates are 12 inches by 6 inches. The asterisk's mark where the specimens are.

I just prepped this Elrathia kingii I found last year. It’s more 3-dimensional than most of them. It also has a slight reverse C-shape curve to it. It’s left side was covered with matrix when found, but after removing the matrix, almost nothing was actually found under it. Looks like something took a big bite out of it. Can anyone hypothesize what the damage actually is caused by?
Link to images: https://imgur.com/gallery/wzDoG

Hi, all. I found this specimen last summer near a clay quarry in Rogers City, Michigan. I think there might be two trilobite fossils here. The one on the lower left looks like it could be from the order Ptychopariida, and there may also be the segmented thorax of another trilobite. What are your thoughts

Good afternoon friends,
I was wondering if someone could kindly explain why the two trilobites I found at Mineral Wells Fossil Park around Dallas Texas fossilized so differently?
The off white trilobite is extremely brittle and can easily crack, while the other was fossilized in stone. I just do not understand the fossilization process of the two.
Thank you
Mirna Villarreal
The fossils are around 300 million years old